International Conference on Afghanistan, Bonn (2011)

On 5 December 2011, an International Conference on Afghanistan was held at the Hotel Petersberg in Bonn, Germany. The conference was hosted by Germany and chaired by Afghanistan.

At the NATO Summit in Lisbon in November 2010, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai had asked Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel to host a follow-up conference ten years after the 2001 Bonn Conference. In order to prepare the second Bonn Conference, the Afghan Government worked in collaboration with the International Contact Group on Afghanistan, which consists of the Special Representatives on Afghanistan of 50 states. The Contact Group was headed by the German Special Representative Michael Steiner, and the German diplomat Holger Ziegeler was appointed conference coordinator.

The conference, which was attended by 85 states, 15 international organizations and the United Nations, focused on three main issues involving the conclusion of the Afghan War and the transition of security responsibility to the Afghan Government, scheduled to occur in 2014. These were: civil aspects of the transition process, the role of international community in Afghanistan after the handover, and long-term political stabilization of the country. The conference concluded by issuing a statement affirming continued international support for Afghanistan for the next decade. Progress was hindered by Pakistan's boycott of the conference following the 2011 NATO attack in Pakistan.